Cabernet Sauvignon: All You Need to Know ft Unshackled Wines

To be completely honest with you, I wanted to film a video about Cabernet Sauvignon for years now. I just didn't know where to start because where do you start talking about this amazing grape that's probably the most popular red wine grape variety in the whole wide world, that's so well recognized and well known all over the globe, that is served in pretty much every restaurant and bar, and on top of everything it's one of my most favorite grapes as well. So an opportunity presented itself to me in a very unexpected way and today I am so thrilled to partner up with Unshackled Wines to tell you guys all you need to know about this incredible grape. Let's get into it. Guys welcome to my wine diary. If you are new to this channel please consider subscribing to it at the very end if you like this video and want to see more and if you're one of my returning subscribers I thank you very much for being here for yet another video. Born in California but enjoyed all over, Unshackled Wines break free from convention and they challenge their drinkers to do just the same. They're a non-traditional luxury wine brand for non-traditional wine lovers and they produce mainstream varietals but with their own unique flair. Their wines are approachable, they're fresh and they appeal to a younger generation that isn't currently drinking fine wine. They dial up brighter, fresher, more fruit forward offerings to bring a new perspective and that creates wines that are approachable, bright and fresh. Unshackled has a great and easy to navigate website so check out the link in the description box to buy their wines online or find them in a store or restaurant near you. I think it makes sense if we start with its origin. So Cabernet Sauvignon is believed to have originated in the 17th century in Bordeaux, France and it is a natural cross between Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc and when we talk about Bordeaux region specifically in France it is a key component in a lot of Bordeaux blends where it's a lot of times blended with Merlot, it's blended with Cab Franc, Petit Verdot and some other grapes as well. So it's definitely a key varietal for the area of Bordeaux in France. Napa Valley in California is renowned for high quality Cabernet Sauvignon. Its warm climate contributes greatly to the ripe fruit flavors of their wine and then also the full body of the Cabernet Sauvignon that they produce. Now the unshackled Cabernet Sauvignon here is mainly from central coast 94% to be exact from southern Monterey and then Paso Robles as well and the remaining 6% comes from the North Valley. But when it comes to other regions of the world where Cabernet is grown I mean we're talking all over the world here Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia, Italy, Spain it is grown all over the globe. Let's talk about vine and grape characteristics of Cabernet Sauvignon. When it comes to its vines those are sturdy and adaptable because of that they thrive in very many different climates and they're grown all over the globe. And when it comes to its grapes those are small thick skinned grapes that allow a ton of tannins and a good tannic structure of this wine and because of that there is of course great aging potential for it. Let's talk about flavor profile here because quite honestly Cabernet Sauvignon is all about the flavor when we describe a typical Cabernet Sauvignon we use a lot of dark berries and dark fruit descriptors so blackberries, blackcurrant, dark cherries, plums right but then we go into like a complete different category of descriptors such as cedar, vanilla, chocolate, leather sometimes. Sometimes you'll even hear something like green bell pepper or mint so it's really a pretty wide range of flavors and all the aromas that come through on the nose as well. So I want to focus on this Unshackled Cabernet and give you an idea of how a Cabernet Sauvignon from California can come through on the flavor profile and then the smelling profile as well. So let's go ahead and swirl this one we're going to smell it first and then we're going to taste it and describe what it comes through on the palate. So I'm giving this Unshackled Cabernet Sauvignon a really good sniff. I am really smelling layers on layers of red fruits and dark red berries as well so blackcurrants, plums, even boysenberry perhaps. But when we talk about layers what we're trying to describe here is the complexity of the wine and this wine is indeed very complex. When we step away from the fruit and the berries descriptors I smell some oak here that comes through as vanilla aroma and I also smell some chocolate and maybe some leather smell to it as well. So all of those layers are just coming through all together in a very complex beautiful aroma. I would say that additionally you can almost sense some enhancement of like a black tea smell to this wine which quite honestly makes it even better believe it or not. It's very unique and definitely very complex I can't wait to try it. When it comes to tasting this wine it is definitely bold it is dry and it is medium to high tannins here and about medium acidity I would say. It is extremely flavorful and all of those complex aromas 100% come through on the palate for me as well. I would say that on top of that that complexity ends with a very slight very smooth finish of pepper at the very end. So overall fantastic tasting wine for the money that you spend on it. I mentioned medium to high tannins when I tasted this one and I think that it's critical that we talk about tannins in Cabernet Sauvignons in general. So tannins is really what brings out the structure and the complexity of a Cabernet Sauvignon and it also is something that assures aging capabilities great aging capabilities that Cabernet Sauvignons are actually famous for. When it comes to the Unshackled Cabernet Sauvignon here this wine has very soft tannins that are not requiring us to age this wine for any period of time. It is ready to consume so unlike some of the more oak driven and say stronger tannic structure Cabernets out there that require aging this one is ready to be consumed and it tastes just as great. When it comes to the just a varietal composition here we have Cabernet Sauvignon, we have Petit Verdot, we have some Malbec, Petit Syrah as well so all of those great varietals that went into this varietal composition they really I feel like come through on those soft tannins when you taste this wine. When it comes to wine making oak aging is a big part of producing Cabernet Sauvignon and a lot of times a Cabernet Sauvignon is aged in oak barrels which greatly affects its tasting characteristics so that's where we start tasting vanilla, we start tasting chocolate, even sometimes a very smooth leather taste to it. This gorgeous Cabernet Sauvignon from Unshackled was aged in the mix of French and American oak for about nine to ten months and about 25 to 30 percent of it was new oak too. What about blending? A lot of times Cabernet Sauvignon is bottled as a single varietal wine which means it was the only grape that was used to produce a specific vintage but a lot of times it's also blended with other red varieties which only enhances the complexity and aging capabilities of the wine too. Food pairings with Cabernet Sauvignon are vast because of its complex structure it goes really well with hearty dishes, with meats, with aged cheeses so I truly encourage for you to experiment and try it with different foods that you eat. Speaking about the aging potential, high quality Cabernet Sauvignons can absolutely benefit from aging and storing them for a couple of years. Aging a good high quality Cabernet Sauvignon is definitely something that would just reinforce that complexity and just the structure of the wine help it mature and open up a little bit better but it's not every single Cabernet Sauvignon that needs that so matter of fact you can 100% enjoy Cabernet Sauvignons fresh, simple, without overthinking it, overdoing it, just enjoy your wine. There's so many different varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon too so all of that the aging potential will of course depend on where the wine comes from so the region, the country, the producing country, the style of winemaking that was used so there's really a ton that goes into that final decision of whether we should store a Cabernet Sauvignon or drink it fresh and simple. This Unshackled Cabernet Sauvignon is 2021 vintage and I feel like this one is a perfect balance of freshness and simplicity and that richness and density on the other hand. This one is a very fruit forward bright fresh wine but it doesn't stop it from being complex, being beautifully colored, the color of wine is gorgeous so it almost feels like it's an older vintage but it actually isn't so we don't have to go super complicated we can stay simple and really enjoy a wine that's younger yet is very flavorful and great tasting. Unshackled is a part of the Prisoner Wine brand which some of you may be familiar with and they have an amazing website that has a ton of features and ton of tabs to it. It doesn't just tell you more information about the brand itself, it tells you about their winemakers, their staff, the grapes that they use, you can purchase their wines directly from the website and they've got many different types it's not just the Cabernet Sauvignon that we talked about here so definitely check out the other wines that they have but the one feature that I really really liked and appreciated was the feature to find Unshackled near you locally so once you input your state and your zip code in there it shows you not only the stores in which it's sold but it also shows you restaurants and bars near you where you can find Unshackled wines on the menu which I thought was fabulous so now I know that a couple of my favorite places in the area where I live actually carry this brand and I can find it on their menus too so super cool. I really enjoy modern and forward-thinking wine brands and Unshackled is definitely one of them but there is one more awesome thing about their packaging that I wanted to point out to you well first their label is super cool I already showed it to you up close. What they did is they started to produce their wines in lighter glass bottles which potentially saves up to 300 plus tons of glass annually and for that reason largely reduces our environmental footprint which is amazing. They also stopped putting foil caps on their wines which doesn't actually affect the quality of the wine whatsoever but it largely eliminates the unnecessary waste for the environment so I just absolutely love that switch that they currently did and yeah just another check mark for me when it comes to Unshackled. And this is it for today's video. Thank you so much everyone for hanging with me and learning about Cabernet Sauvignon. Thank you to Unshackled Wines for this partnership and also sending me this delicious Cabernet Sauvignon. You guys check out Unshackled's website. Check out my other videos on this channel as well and until next time, cheers everyone!